Author: Antonino Alì

On May 12, 2025, China’s State Council Information Office released a major white paper titled “China’s National Security in the New Era”. It presents a comprehensive shift in Beijing’s strategic thinking—distinguishing this as their first dedicated national security declaration since 1949  . The paper analyzes China’s holistic national security strategy—spanning political, economic, technological, and social spheres—and its global
Continue reading White Paper “China’s National Security in the New Era”

The EU regulation on countering foreign economic coercion (Reg. 2023/2675) sets up an instrument that, at first glance, appears robust: it allows the Union to identify coercive acts by third countries, initiate consultations, and—if necessary—adopt response measures. The stated goal is to “deter economic coercion” (see Recital 7, 8 and Article 1(2)). “Recital (7) Whilst
Continue reading The Anti-Coercion Instrument and the Paradox of Deterrence

Imagine a trade policy that reacts automatically—if the U.S. imposes 30% on imports, our system instantly mirrors with 30%. No announcements, no grandiose threats, no ambiguous deadlines, just a simple rule: escalate, and we escalate equally. Mirror tariffs: a strategic analysis The strategic logic Automatic mirror tariffs would fundamentally disrupt trade strategies that rely on
Continue reading A provocative idea: the case for “mirror tariffs”, a symmetric tit-for-tat or strategic proportionality ?

Summary of “A Primer on Russian Cognitive Warfare” – Institute for the Study of War (ISW), June 30, 2025 Russia’s cognitive warfare represents a foundational pillar of its strategy for both war and governance. More than mere disinformation, it is a long-term, multilayered effort to reshape how adversaries think, reason, and decide—with the aim of achieving
Continue reading Russian Cognitive Warfare according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW)

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, in its historic judgment in Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia (9 July 2025), delivered a sweeping condemnation of the Russian Federation for what it characterized as multiple, flagrant, and coordinated violations of the European Convention on Human Rights across Ukrainian territory between 2014 and 2022. At
Continue reading An historic judgment: Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia before the ECHR

1.  Applicable international legal frameworks 2. State responsibility and attribution 3. Use of force and electronic warfare 4. Regulatory gaps and enforcement 5. Sources and further reading Key Legal Issues on the Table

I am proud to be part of SPHERE – Space Policies, Humanities, and Exogeographical Research Ecosystem, a research initiative that explores the political, social, and strategic dimensions of space in bold, interdisciplinary ways. SPHERE is an interdisciplinary research unit hosted by the LUISS Center for International and Strategic Studies (CISS). It is dedicated to the exploration of
Continue reading SPHERE – Space Policies, Humanities, and Exogeographical Research Ecosystem – LUISS Center for International and Strategic Studies (CISS)

A trajectory links Earth to outer space, and it is not only the one traced by rockets. It is the political, economic, and regulatory path that the European Union is trying to chart while the cosmos becomes ever more crowded, contested, and—above all—relevant to daily life. Why does space matter to us? Satellite signals now enable
Continue reading Europe’s Place in Space: Between Strategic Ambition and Earthly Reality

RAND Europe’s response to the EU Cloud and AI Development Act consultation is a compelling and at times blunt strategic diagnosis of the European Union’s position within the global AI race. It offers a vision that moves away from romanticised ideals of full technological sovereignty and instead embraces the colder, more transactional logic of strategic
Continue reading Strategic indispensability over sovereignty: a critical reading of RAND Europe’s response to the EU Cloud and AI Development Act

The term “dark logic” in this context seems to refer to the AI’s ability to derive effective strategies or solutions that are outside the realm of human reasoning, often leading to unexpected yet successful outcomes. We’ve entered a strange new era in which artificial intelligence doesn’t just imitate how we think—it begins to think in
Continue reading Winning without understanding: the rise of dark logic in AI

In an age where synthetic realities are indistinguishable from truth, and deepfakes spread faster than fact-checkers can blink, Simon Chesterman’s recent article “Lawful but Awful: Evolving Legislative Responses to Address Online Misinformation, Disinformation, and Mal-Information in the Age of Generative AI” (2025) lands with the urgency of a fire alarm in a room full of sleeping regulators.
Continue reading “Lawful but Awful”: regulating misinformation, disinformation, and the rise of generative AI — Reflections on Simon Chesterman’s latest article

“Today, those who control the questions shape the answers and those who shape the answers control the world.” — Luciano Floridi (L., Floridi, The Politics of Uncertainty, Philosophy & Technology, volume 28, pages 1–4, (2015)) In the age of information, power no longer resides solely in who has the answers. It lies deeper—in who decides which questions get asked
Continue reading Power is closely linked to the management of uncertainty: who controls the questions, controls the world

Intelligence agencies must remain candid truth-tellers, not echo chambers for political narratives. When assessments are shaped to align with a government’s domestic agenda, the risk of distortion grows: facts may be selectively emphasized or downplayed to fit a desired storyline. As David Gioe and Michael Hayden caution (Foreign Affairs July 2, 2025), such politicization increases
Continue reading Intelligence agencies and echo chambers for political narratives.

In the concluding chapter of his comprehensive and interesting study, Nicholas Mulder traces the evolution of economic sanctions from their early twentieth-century origins to the present day, offering three key insights into their historical development and contemporary significance. The transformation of liberal internationalism Mulder argues that economic sanctions as we know them today emerged after
Continue reading Conclusions from Nicholas Mulder’s “The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War” (Yale University Press, 2022)

– Grace Murray Hopper, born on December 9, 1906, was a groundbreaking figure often referred to as the “grandmother of computer programming”. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in math and physics from Vassar College in 1928, and later a Master’s and a PhD in mathematics from Yale. After her studies, she returned to Vassar as a
Continue reading Grace Hopper: A Visionary Pioneer in Computer Science

In his thought-provoking article, ‘Universities as Innovation Ecologies for Human and Planetary Flourishing’, Otto Scharmer challenges the traditional role of universities, advocating a transformative approach to higher education. He argues that universities must evolve into dynamic ecosystems that actively engage in regenerating society and the planet, as well as disseminating knowledge. From knowledge transmission to
Continue reading “Universities and schools need to develop first-class humans, not second-class robots”

Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, born in 1864 and deceased in 1958, is primarily remembered for his role in promoting peace through economic instruments. During the First World War, from February 1916 to July 1918, he served as Minister of Blockade, tasked with coordinating a naval embargo against Germany that forced the enemy
Continue reading From Sanctions to Sabotage: the evolution of economic warfare in the thought and practice of Robert Cecil and Roundell Palmer

The Revival of Geopolitical Bloc Monica Duffy Toft’s article “The Return of Spheres of Influence: Will Negotiations Over Ukraine Be a New Yalta Conference?” from Foreign Affairs (March 2025) begins by charting a historical arc: after the Cold War, the ascendancy of globalization, multilateral institutions, and liberal norms appeared to render traditional power blocs obsolete. Yet, as
Continue reading The Return of Spheres of Influence: Revisiting Yalta in a Multipolar World

In late June 2025, a striking announcement marked a turning point in Germany’s intelligence landscape: the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the country’s foreign intelligence agency, is set to undergo a major institutional overhaul. At the heart of this transformation lies a symbolic yet strategic leadership change. Bruno Kahl, who has led the BND since 2016, will step down and be
Continue reading Germany’s Intelligence shift: recasting the BND as a strategic actor in a turbulent World

1. International Law is not a Monolith A recent piece on The Guardian conflates the crisis of one branch of international law—namely, international criminal justice—with the demise of the entire system. Yes — it seems quite likely that the title of Linda Kinstler’s article was, at least playfully or ironically, echoing the R.E.M. song “It’s the End of the
Continue reading Is It the End of International Law as we Know it?

In their recent article Might Unmakes Right (Foreign Affairs July/August 2025 Published on June 24, 2025), Oona Hathaway and Scott Shapiro argue that the international legal order—painstakingly built over the past century—is unraveling under the pressure of great power politics and the instrumentalization of law by powerful states, particularly the United States. Their thesis is striking: rather
Continue reading Power, Erosion, and the Unmaking of the Rules-Based Order

James Willard Hurst’s Law and the Conditions of Freedom in the Nineteenth?Century United States (1956) is a landmark collection of essays that redefines how we see American legal history. Drawing on his 1955 Rosenthal Lectures at Northwestern, Hurst offers a compelling reinterpretation: law was not merely a restrictive force but a dynamic engine for unleashing individual and collective
Continue reading Unlocking Freedom: Hurst’s vision of 19th-century American law

The United States has taken a bold, even bewildering step into the digital age of money. Through two executive orders in early 2025, the White House unveiled a Digital Asset Strategy (DAS) aimed at turning the US into the “crypto capital of the world.” The plan is ambitious: a national crypto reserve, a push for
Continue reading Is the Digital Dollar Undermining Itself? And What Should Europe Do About It?

A recent report by the European Central Bank (ECB), published in June 2025, clearly shows that the share of the US dollar in international reserves has declined by about 2 percentage points, while the Chinese yuan has also lost ground, remaining stagnant at around 2.2%. In the same study, the euro’s stoic position emerges with
Continue reading Gold Ascendant: ECB Report Highlights Decline of Dollar and Yuan, Stagnation of Euro in Global Reserves

The RAND Europe submission to the UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on National Security Strategy, in response to its Call for Evidence on Undersea Cables dated 6 March 2025, presents a detailed and urgent assessment of the risks, vulnerabilities, and governance challenges surrounding critical undersea infrastructure—particularly the telecommunications cables upon which modern society fundamentally relies. These
Continue reading Undersea Cables: RAND Europe submission to the UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on National Security Strategy

Here they come again … The European Commission’s ProtectEU strategy aims, among other goals, to develop a “technology roadmap” that would enable lawful access to encrypted communications. Superficially, this promises a careful balance: strong encryption preserved, yet decryptable when legally warranted. But beneath the veneer lies a direct conflict with the fundamental rights framework established by the European Court
Continue reading ProtectEU: lawful access to encrypted communications?

In response to escalating global trade tensions and the consequential redirection of goods into the European Union (EU) market, the European Commission has launched a comprehensive import surveillance tool. This initiative aims to monitor and mitigate the adverse effects of trade diversion, ensuring the stability and competitiveness of EU industries.  Background: The Surge in Trade
Continue reading New EU import surveillance tool: monitoring trade diversions

The document presented is a memorandum dated April 12, 2001, from Donald Rumsfeld, then Secretary of Defense, addressed to President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney, and Condoleezza Rice. The memo introduces and attaches a critical reflection by Lin Wells titled “Thoughts for the 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review.” This reflection underscores a fundamental paradox:
Continue reading The unpredictability and rapid shifts in geopolitical reality and strategic alliances within brief historical intervals, often less than a decade.

Reports indicate that the Ukrainian drones involved in the strike on Russian strategic bombers were controlled using ArduPilot over 4G/LTE communications. This suggests the use of cellular networks as a medium for long-range UAV control, leveraging the MAVLink protocol — a lightweight, widely adopted telemetry standard that remains unencrypted by default. From a technical and counterintelligence perspective, this raises immediate
Continue reading Ukrainian Drones Used ArduPilot and 4G/LTE in Strategic Bomber Attack — Russian SORM Likely to Adapt Quickly

Starlink is a constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) developed by SpaceX, designed to provide high-speed, low-latency internet connection even in the most remote areas. Its strength lies in the low orbital altitude—about 550 kilometers—which drastically reduces latency, bringing it down to the 20–30 millisecond range. This is a remarkable improvement compared to traditional geostationary satellites, which are much farther from Earth. The Starlink system relies
Continue reading On Starlink

A joint investigation by Danwatch and Der Spiegel has uncovered a stunning breach of Russian military secrecy: highly sensitive documents detailing the infrastructure of Russia’s nuclear weapons facilities were publicly accessible online for months. Over two million procurement documents—retrieved from a Russian government database using advanced digital techniques—reveal the massive, years-long modernization of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces. These upgrades include new bases,
Continue reading Russia’s Nuclear Facilities (packed with Danish products) Exposed Online

What is End-to-End Encryption (E2EE)? End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) is a communication system designed to ensure that messages are readable only by the communicating parties. The fundamental principle is that the key used for encryption and decryption is known only to the endpoints, i.e., the users’ devices. This is different from non-E2EE systems, such as traditional email or
Continue reading End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) and the problems associated with backdoors

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) stands at the epicenter of a complex geopolitical triangle involving the United States and China. As the world’s leading chipmaker, TSMC’s operations are deeply intertwined with both nations: it supplies advanced semiconductors to Chinese tech giants like Huawei and relies heavily on U.S. technology and equipment for its manufacturing processes.
Continue reading TSMC, China, and the U.S.: A Semiconductor Power Struggle

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 (OBBBA) is a comprehensive legislative package passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on May 22, 2025. Encompassing over 1,000 pages, the bill aims to extend and modify various tax provisions, implement significant spending changes, and introduce new fiscal measures. Section 899 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 marks
Continue reading Understanding Section 899: A New Fiscal Doctrine in U.S.

Scott Bessent recently suggested that a bank-issued stablecoin could generate up to $2 trillion in demand for U.S. Treasuries. To understand this claim, it’s necessary to unpack both the mechanics of stablecoins and the strategic thinking behind their potential expansion. Stablecoins are digital tokens pegged to fiat currencies—primarily the U.S. dollar—and typically backed by reserves
Continue reading Bank issued stablecoin and US Treasuries demand: is it monetary camouflage?